by Eugene Hernandez and Anthony Kaufman/indieWIRE, with a report from Anna Dorfman/Digital Coast Daily

>> Acclaimed Short Set to Hit Shooting Gallery’s Series

(indieWIRE/02.09.01) — The Shooting Gallery has announced the addition ofGuy Maddin‘s acclaimed short film, “The Heart of the World,” to its filmseries, screening prior to “Last Resort” in New York, Los Angeles andChicago later this month. The film, from Canadian Maddin, was originallycommissioned by the Toronto International Film Festival as a prelude tofeature screenings. The film was later acquired by Zeitgeist.

Reporting from the Toronto Film Festival, indieWIRE Senior Editor AnthonyKaufman singled out Maddin’s short as a highlight of the event. “It wasperhaps a couple of the Preludes — short films commissioned by the festivalto appear before the features and directed by Canadian locals — that heldthe sparkles of a newly found gem,” Kaufman wrote. “Maddin’s Eisensteinmeets “Metropolis” early cinema ode is a marvel, depicting a beautifulblonde woman who must choose between the love of two brothers while theworld has a massive heart attack. In the process of saving the world, she —get this — creates the motion picture.”

Concluding Kaufman added, “It’s that kind of resurrection that would doeveryone in the film business some good, from those making films to thoseprogramming them.” [Eugene Hernandez]

The struggling online entertainment company had laid off 60 of its 100staffers in late November, followed by another 11 last month, in an effortto shelve its costly in-house production facility and make itself moreattractive to investors.

Since its inception in November 1999, when Icebox was hatched from incubatoreCompanies, the operation has functioned on a total of $15 million. It hasspent the past month desperately trying to close a second round offinancing. The company was also approached by contentplayers, including Z.com, who were looking for merger or acquisitionpartners, but was not interested in pursuing this strategy, explainedSpiritus.

She said Icebox is now looking for homes for its properties, includingpopular cartoons “Mr. Wong,” “Queer Duck” and “Zombie College.”“Ultimately,” Spiritus lamented to the Digital Coast Daily, “Iceboxaccomplished what it set out to do — make great content, but there’s toomuch uncertainty in the market right now — it’s too tough.”

From the outset, Icebox was a strong contender in the online entertainmentspace, and enlisted high-profile writing and production talent from showssuch as “South Park,” “Seinfeld,” “Ren & Stimpy” and “The X-Files.” The company also negotiated several lucrative offline deals,and made history when its “Starship” Regulars series was picked up andlicensed by a full-fledged TV network — Showtime. Icebox also recentlypenned a marketing deal with the creators of “Monkeybone,” which is set tobe released as a feature film in the near future.

Still, the troubled online content space was merciless this year, producingmany failures, a-la-Pop.com, Time Warner‘s Entertaindom, DEN and Pseudo, and few winners, such as Mondo Media, which garnered $17 million in third round financing in mid-January. [Anna Dorfman/Digital Coast Daily]

(indieWIRE/02.09.01) — Tales of Rohmer, a 13-film retrospective of theFrench New Wave forerunner, kicks off its nationwide tour at New York’s FilmForum today (Friday, Feb. 9). Running through March 15, the series will thentravel to over thirty North American cities throughout the year includingLos Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Washington DC, San Francisco, Houston,Seattle, Portland, Atlanta, Miami, Minneapolis, and Detroit.

Distributor Winstar Cinema (“Pola X,” “Humanite“) has struck new 35 prints of the works, including such Rohmer classics as “Chloe in the Afternoon” (1971), “Claire’s Knee” (1970) and his 1969 Academy Award nominatedinternational success, “My Night at Maud’s.” The series will also showcasethe U.S. theatrical premiere of “A Summer’s Tale” (1996), the third featurein Rohmer’s acclaimed Tales of the Four Seasons series.

“Autumn Tale,” the last in the series and Rohmer’s most recent film to bereleased in the U.S. (by USA Films), received the award for Best ForeignLanguage Film from the National Society of Film Critics for 1999. At80-years-old, with more than thirty films to his credit, the beloved Frenchdirector has turned to digital video for his next feature, “L’Anglaise et leduc,” starring Lucy Russell (“Following“) and Jean-Claude Dreyfus, which opens in France this year. [Anthony Kaufman]